Excess moisture/potential mold issue in basement unit

[William Edmondson]

Hello all,

I have a problem that I hope someone may have experience with. I am a new REI and I purchased my first property, a triplex in DeKalb County, GA in which I owner-occupy. It has two units on the front which appear as a duplex, and on the back of the property (property is on a downward slop, there is a 1br/1ba unit that was built from the finished basement which sits below the other two units. The entrance to this unit faces out from the rear of the house.

There is an issue with excess moisture in this unit in particular. I have a dehumidifier down there running and its sucking maybe a gallon a day or more out of the unit. There is nothing growing on the walls or anything, but if you go in there and sit on the couch or the bed it feels cold and damp like it was in a refrigerator or something.

I don't believe there are any leaks or anything, I pay for the water bill and the bill is very reasonable, ~100 bucks a month for all three units.

There is a crawlspace on the other side of the wall of her unit where the water heaters for the units reside and there are various things stored like yard tools, is it possible that rain water is getting into there somehow and leaking under the floor, humidifying the room?

She moved a pair of shoes that had sit in her closet for a month and it had what appeared to be a blue hue to it like bread mold or something.

I want to get this handled as quickly as possible but I've seen so many horror stories about "mold experts" that employ pseudoscience to diagnose mold issues and I don't want to get raked over the coals here.

Again, any advice is extremely helpful. Thank you so much!

Best Regards,

-Will E.